Tottenham Hotspur was unable to register a 25-man squad for the Champions League. The most prominent “victim”: Mathys Tel.
Mathys Tel has played 16 times in the Champions League so far. He will now have to wait until at least mid-February for his 17th appearance. The 20-year-old striker, who left FC Bayern Munich for good this summer, was not registered by Tottenham Hotspur for the league phase – a bitter disappointment for the Frenchman.
The Spurs were willing to pay around €35 million to sign Tel on a permanent basis for the new season after he initially joined on loan last winter shortly before the end of the transfer window. The fact that he is now not eligible to play in the Champions League is surprising at first glance, but it also has to do with the unfavorable squad structure at Spurs.
Because the squad contains too few players trained at the club or in the association to meet UEFA requirements, the Londoners were unable to register a 25-man squad and had to drop six members of the first team. Among them is James Maddison, a player who will miss the entire league phase due to injury, along with Dejan Kulusevski and Radu Dragusin. Added to this are new center back Kota Takai, who is still inexperienced in Europe, Yves Bissouma, who is no longer in demand and is still considering a move to Turkey, and Tel.
The former Munich player made 13 Premier League appearances under Ange Postecoglou in the first half of the year, eleven of which were in the starting line-up (two goals, one assist). His successor, Thomas Frank, has only used his number 11 twice for a total of 19 minutes at the start of the new season, and he will have to fight hard for more minutes.
Tel’s “problem” is also called Kolo Muani – Spurs face Bundesliga duo
Tel’s downfall in the Champions League was that on deadline day, Spurs signed Randal Kolo Muani on loan from Paris Saint-Germain, who is also in the squad along with former Leipzig player Xavi.
Tottenham will face Villarreal (H), Bodö/Glimt (A), Monaco (A), Copenhagen (H), PSG (A), Slavia Prague (H), Borussia Dortmund (H), and Eintracht Frankfurt (A) in the league phase. If they make it through to the knockout stages, Frank will be able to replace up to three players in his squad. Tel now has until February to apply for one of these places.
